Tongue-support



(No Model.)

G. B. HAYES.

TONGUE SUPPORT.

No. 348,466. Patented Aug. 31, 1886.

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UNITED STATES PATENT GEEICE.

GEORGE B. HAYES, OF OTTAVA, KANSAS.

TONGUE-SUPPORT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 348,466, dated August 31, 1886.

(No model.)

To all whom it may' concern,.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. HAYEs, a citizen of the United States, residi'ndf at Ot tawa, in the county of Franklin ai' State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tagen-Tongue Supports; and I do hereby declare the .following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enabley others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to means for supporting or holding up the tongues of wagons in order to take the weight thereof off the horses necks, and to prevent the tongue from falling on the ground when the team is taken off, or in cases of accident or running away.

It consists in a transverse spring applied to the upper side of 'the rear end ofthe tongue, its ends having bearings in adjustable eyebolts in the hounds, whereby an adjustment can be effected to raise and lower the tongue, as may be desired, to adjust it to different teams.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my invention, and which form a part of this specification, Figure l is a perspective view of the front part of a wagon with my invention applied thereto, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section through the tongue and hounds on the line of the spring and its eyebolts.

The running-gear of the wagon, as illustrated in the drawings, is of the usual construction, which is well known and needs no description. The tongue, as usual, is connected to the hounds by a transverse bolt, a. In rear of this bolt I apply a spring, Z1, to the upper side of the tongue, the ends of which spring project laterally over the hounds and into-eyebolts or stirrups, which are attached to the hounds. The spring b is not permanently attached to the tongue, but is held in place by a headless lock-bolt, 0, which is secured in the rear end of the tongue and projects above the same. The spring has a central opening, p, which receives the bolt o, as shown, the office of' the latter being merely lto prevent displacement of the spring. So long as the ends of the spring are in the eyebolts or stirrups, and the center is supported by the tongue, which presses upward, the bolt o will prevent endwise movement of the spring and the latter will be retained in its operative position. Vhen it is desired to remove the spring, or to let the tongue down, the front end of the latter is first raised, when the bolt o is withdrawn from the opening p in the spring, when the latter is free to be taken out.

In the hounds, substantially in a line with the spring b and its bolt 0, are two eyebolts or stirrups, c c, which receive the ends of the spring b. These eyebolts or stirrups are made adjustable vertically, and by moving them up or down the tongue may be adjusted so as to stand lower or higher, as may be desired.

As a means for adjusting the eyebolts, I show nuts d applied to their lower ends; but any other suitable means may be adopted.

The eyes or stirru ps, which receive and hold the ends of the spring, are preferably elongated, as shown in Fig. l, whereby provision is made for disconnecting them from the spring, such disconnection being effected by turning them around until the end of the loop passes oft" from over the end of the spring. The tongue may then be dropped. rIhus I provide a double means for disconnecting the partsfirst, by raising the front end of the tongue to disengage the bolt o from its opening in the spring, when the latter may be removed; second, by turning one or both the eyebolts off fromrthe end or ends of the spring without raising the tongue. The second is convenient when the team is hitched to the wagon, while the first may be used when the team is unhitched and the tongue free to be raised. In cases where the tongue does not extend back far enough in rear of the connecting-bolt a to afford sufficient leverage for the operation of the spring, I apply a curved iron plate,e,which is attached to the ends of the hounds of the tongue, the curved or central portion thereof extending back beyond the end of the tongue and forming a bridge upon which the spring is mounted and secured, in the manner above described. This plate is only used where the rear end of the tongue is too short to permit the application of the spring b directly there to, and has no necessary connection with the latter except in such cases.

Having now described my invention, and the manner of applying and using the same, I claim as new- 1. The combination, with the tongue and hounds of a Wagon, of an upwardly-curved spring, b, attached to the top of the tongue in rear of its connectingbolt a, and verticallyadjustable eyebolts or stirrnps c c ou the hounds, which receive and hold the ends of the spring, substantially as shown and described. y y

2. The combination, with the tongue and hounds of a wagon, of the curved spring I), attached to the tongue in rear of-its connecting-bolt a, and elongated eyes or stirrups on the hounds, which receive and hold the ends of the spring, the said eyes or stirrups being capable oi rotation, whereby they may be turned off from the ends ofthe spring for dis- 348,4es y 

